Senate confirms Kavanaugh to high court

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said Saturday that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, a George W. Bush-era appointee who voted against gay marriage in 2015 but supported Obamacare in 2012, could serve as the Supreme Court's new center.

The near party-line vote was 50-48, capping a fight that seized the national conversation after claims emerged that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted women three decades ago - which he emphatically denied.

The investigation was granted by Republican leaders, and on October 5, Senators voted 51-49 to end the debate and go forward with the confirmation vote. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, announced they, too, would support Kavanaugh. Steve Daines (R-MT) was at his daughter's wedding during the vote.

Adding to the drama, women protesters in the Senate gallery shouting, "Shame on you", briefly interrupted the start of the final confirmation vote on Saturday afternoon.

Republicans control the Senate by a 51-49 margin, and Saturday's vote seems destined to be almost party-line. Sen.

Democrats don't seem to have the votes to keep Brett Kavanaugh from joining the Supreme Court, but that's not stopping them from taking to the Senate floor in a parade of speeches into the early morning against the conservative jurist.

President Donald Trump, in speaking with reporters at the White House said today was exciting, but called the confirmation process "really unattractive".

After Ford's allegations, Democrats and their allies became engaged as seldom before, though there were obvious echoes of Thomas' combative confirmation over the sexual harassment accusations of Anita Hill, who worked for him at two federal agencies.

A townhouse near the Washington residence of Republican Senator Susan Collins, whose backing for Kavanaugh helped get him over the line on Saturday, flew the flag of her home state ME upside down in protest.

The outcome, telegraphed Friday when the final undeclared senators revealed their views, was devoid of the shocks that had come nearly daily since Christine Blasey Ford said last month that an inebriated Kavanaugh tried to rape her at a 1982 high school get-together.

Ahead of the vote, hundreds of people protesting against Mr Kavanaugh's nomination demonstrated at the US Capitol in Washington. That balanced out the absence without affecting the outcome, and gave Kavanaugh the same two-vote margin he'd have received had both lawmakers voted.

At a political rally in Mississippi Tuesday night, Trump mimicked Ford's responses during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week.

In confirming Judge Kavanaugh the Senate has confirmed a good man with an impeccable record of honoring the U.S. Constitution, Judicial Watch said. The man accused of sexual assault by multiple women will now sit on the SCOTUS bench as a justice for a lifetime appointment. Manchin, the only Democrat supporting the nominee, faces a competitive re-election race next month in a state Trump carried in 2016 by 42 percentage points.

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